UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) The big world experiment: the mobilization of social capital in migrant communities Peters, L.S. Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Peters, L. S. (2010). The big world experiment: the mobilization of social capital in migrant communities General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (http://dare.uva.nl) Download date: 20 Nov 2018
Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1. Voluntary Organizations and the Political Participation of Migrant Communities 11 1.1 Civic culture and why voluntary organizations are promoting political participation 12 1.2 Quality of governance 16 1.3 Multicultural democracies and the participation of ethnic minorities and immigrants 17 1.5 Voluntary organizations and migrant political participation 18 1.6 Ethnic communities, ethnic organizations and political participation: the relationship explained 18 1.7 The black box: what is in it? 26 1.8 The black box: the first rays of light 27 1.9 Problematic features of the assumptions about the organizational level 27 1.10 Opening up the black box: the primary step 28 2. Social Capital 31 2.1 The relationship between a civil society, a civic community and social capital 31 2.2 Defining social capital 35 2.3 Social capital in the current study: a general definition 36 2.4 The measurement of social capital; some initial insights 37 2.5 Individual vs. collective social capital 38 2.6 The providing and receiving sides of social capital 40 2.7 Four outlooks on social capital 42 2.8 Assessing organizational networks 56 2.9 Bonding and bridging social capital 58 2.10 Linking social capital 63 3. Political Opportunity Structures in Amsterdam and Berlin 65 3.1 The influx of immigrants: same challenges, different responses 66 3.2 Political opportunity structure; what is it, why is it important and what does it look like in the relevant cases? 66 3.3 General typologies of POS in the Netherlands and Germany 71 3.4 Points of attention 73 3.5 The political opportunity structure in Amsterdam 76 3.6 The political opportunity structure in Berlin 81 3.7 Political opportunity structure social capital mobilized social capital 86 3.8 To the empirical parts 89 v
4. Collecting Social Capital Network Data 91 4.1 Towards an appropriate questionnaire 91 4.2 Current study: the questionnaire 96 4.3 Recall bias: problem and solution 98 4.4 Implementation of the questionnaire 100 4.5 Response rates in Amsterdam 104 4.6 Response rate in Berlin 104 4.7 Assessing networks of interlocking directorates 105 4.8 Final remarks for the analyses 106 4.9 The analyses and how the results are presented 107 5. Social Capital in Amsterdam 109 5.1 The subjective classification by community members 109 5.2 High social capital with respect to the type of alters 112 5.3 Connections to non-turkish organizations: ethnically bridging and bonding social capital 115 5.4 A horizontal community 117 5.5 The umbrella organizations of religious movements 118 5.6 The importance of personnel and personality 120 5.7 The relevance of locality 121 5.8 Linking social capital 122 5.9 The media and the message 126 5.10 Comparing the network of interlocking directorates and the contact network 126 5.11 Social capital in Amsterdam summarized 128 6. Social Capital in Berlin 129 6.1 The ideological divides in Berlin 130 6.2 A first introduction to the TGB and TBB 132 6.3 The TGB and TBB on second sight 133 6.4 The position of religious organizations 137 6.5 On larger and smaller organizations: the positions of organizations of different sizes 138 6.6 Larger organizations I: the Kurdish sub-group 138 6.7 Larger organizations II: women s organizations 139 6.8 Larger organizations III: the TDU 141 6.9 All the small things: the smaller players 141 6.10 The importance of collaborative bodies 142 6.11 The positive effect of collaborative bodies on social capital 146 6.12 Bonding and bridging over ethnic boundaries 146 6.13 The fact and the factual: boards and managers 149 6.14 Professionalism 149 6.15 Use and usefulness of linking social capital 150 6.16 Media associations 154 6.17 The network of interlocking directorates and the contact network compared 154 6.18 Summary and how does it work? 155 vi
7. The Big World Experiment 157 7.1 Defining mobilization at its narrowest: welcome to the jungle 158 7.2 Mobilizing the collective? 159 7.3 Kinds of mobilization 160 7.4 Testing mobilization: why an experiment is the best way to do the job 166 7.5 The Big World Experiment 168 7.6 Back to the roots: the Small World Experiment 169 7.7 Design of the Big World Experiment 171 7.8 Analyzing the BWE data 174 7.9 Dates of the experiments in Amsterdam and Berlin 176 7.10 Samples in Berlin and Amsterdam 177 7.11 Missing data and non-response in Amsterdam and Berlin: chains versus actors 178 7.12 Non-response and non-contact 178 8. Mobilized Social Capital in Amsterdam 181 8.1 What does the mobilization network look like? 181 8.2 Leading organizations in the mobilization process 183 8.3 The persistence of the mobilization: chain length 185 8.4 Mobilization of ethnic bonding and bridging social capital 186 8.5 Addressing bonding and bridging social capital with respect to organizational type 187 8.6 Bonding in the neighborhood: the use of local connections 187 8.7 Moving up: on mobilizing strategies 188 8.8 Linking social capital 190 8.9 The role of the individual in organizations 191 8.10 How do social capital and mobilized social capital relate? Comparing the networks 192 8.11 In case of urgency 193 8.12 Ethnically bonding and bridging social capital 195 8.13 The role of collaborative bodies 195 8.14 Neighbors are convenient for the paperwork, not for the real deal? 196 8.15 The role of governmental organizations 197 8.16 In summary 197 9. Mobilized Social Capital in Berlin 199 9.1 The mobilization network in Berlin 199 9.2 How much social capital is brought into action? 201 9.3 The cut points 203 9.4 The position of collaborative bodies in the mobilization process 205 9.5 Ethnic bonding and bridging social capital: it s a Turkish affair 207 9.6 The role of umbrella organizations 207 9.7 Division of labor 208 9.8 How do social capital and mobilized social capital relate? Comparing the networks 209 9.9 Bridging ideological cleavages while sticking together 209 9.10 Keep it in the family 210 9.11 The use of bridging social capital regarding organizational type 211 9.12 Stability over networks I: the prominent positions of the umbrella organizations 211 vii
9.13 Stability over networks II: the Kurdish organizations 212 9.14 The role of religious (umbrella) organizations 213 9.15 A city-wide community? 213 9.16 The role of collaborative and consultative bodies 215 9.17 Ambivalent relationships: the local government 216 9.18 The media and the message 217 9.19 Summary 217 10. Comparing Amsterdam and Berlin 219 10.1 Comparing the structural aspects 220 10.2 The dominance of ideological cleavages and the case of urgency reflex 225 10.3 Mobilization strategies 227 10.4 The role of umbrella organizations 227 10.5 The role of collaborative bodies, working groups and consultative bodies 229 10.6 Linking social capital 231 10.7 Mixing with other organizations I: ethnic bonding and bridging social capital 232 10.8 Mixing with other organizations II: bonding and bridging social capital over organizational type 234 10.9 Two peculiar groups: the Kurdish and the Islamic organizations 235 10.10 The meaning of locality 236 10.11 Media use 238 10.12 The individual and the organization 238 10.13 In conclusion 239 Conclusion 241 The importance of doing experimental research 241 Real life Big World Experiments 242 Variations of the BWE: suggestions for future studies 244 Implications for the theory of the relationship between social capital and political participation 247 On the outlooks on social capital: I network, therefore 250 Appendices 253 Appendix 1. Questionnaire 255 Appendix 2. Categories of ethnicities, types of organizations, and localities 264 Appendix 3. Lists of Respondents in Amsterdam and Berlin 266 Appendix 4. Key concepts and precautions in social network analysis 270 Appendix 5. Aggregated measures of the social capital and mobilized social capital indicators in Amsterdam and Berlin 273 Appendix 6A. Results from the network analyses on the network of interlocking directorates in Amsterdam 274 Appendix 6B. Results from network analyses on the contact network in Amsterdam 275 Appendix 6C. Results from network analyses on the mobilization network in Amsterdam 276 Appendix 7A. Results from the network analyses on the network of interlocking directorates in Berlin 277 viii
Appendix 7B. Results from network analyses on the contact network in Berlin 278 Appendix 7C. Results from network analyses on the mobilization network in Berlin 279 Appendix 8. Chain data on the mobilization networks 280 References 281 Summary (English) 295 Samenvatting (Nederlands) 303 ix